Many fans at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville brought out umbrellas during a rainy Sunday. / Shelley Mays / The Tennessean

Updated 11:37 p.m. : The expected showers and thunderstorms are "on the doorstep" of Nashville, the National Weather Service in Nashville said shortly before 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected within the next 15 minutes, with rain and some lightning. No severe weather is expected in Nashville overnight.

The rain will be leaving the area around 3 or 4 a.m. Monday, said Scott Unger, a forecaster in the Nashville office.

For Monday afternoon, there is a small potential for some severe weather with damaging straight line winds and hail, Unger said.

— Leigh Ray, The Tennessean

Updated 11 p.m.: As the CMA Music Festival wrapped its its record-breaking four-day run on Sunday night, threatening storms prompted festival organizers to accelerate the LP Field show.

Only the first two acts — Lee Greenwood and Gary Allan — played full sets before show host Storme Warren announced that the rest of the acts would be shortened so fans could see all the artists.

Brad Paisley was on stage 12 minutes, playing two songs. Jake Owen left stage after one song, a move which drew loud boos from the crowd. Carrie Underwood, who brought Paisley back out for their duet “Remind Me,” played 20 minutes. She ended the show around 10:10 p.m., about two hours earlier than the Saturday show concluded.

- Linda Zettler, The Tennessean

Earlier: The Nashville weather forecast Sunday night calls for showers and thunderstorms moving into the area from 10 to 11 p.m., the National Weather Service in Nashville said shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday.

The line of thunderstorms will be moving in from the west in Benton and Humphreys counties, according to Brittney Coleman, meteorologist with the Nashville office.

Nashville could see 'a general thunderstorm and showers' around 10-11 tonight, with the rain moving out by midnight, Coleman said.

The storm in the west is weakening right now, and once it reaches the Nashville area it will be mostly heavy rainfall, possibly a few strikes of lightning, and maybe some gusty winds, she said.

The temperature at Nashville International Airport was 76 degrees around 8 p.m., and the dew point was 68.

"Grand Ole Opry" member Dierks Bentley’s “Last Call Ball” was more of a first-call affair on Sunday, as 350 fans stood in the Hillsboro Village rain to get in the Belcourt Theater when doors opened at 1 p.m.

“This is the most special day of the year for me and the guys in the band,” Bentley said, beginning a full-band, acoustic (plus a little bit of steel guitar) show that began with hits “Am I the Only One” and “Free and Easy (Down The Road I Go)” and “5-1-5-0.” Then he dispensed with the past hits for a while and debuted songs from forthcoming album “Riser,” due out in October.

“I wasn’t nervous last night at the stadium,” said Bentley, who performed at a packed LP Field on Saturday evening. “I’m nervous right now. You guys know me too well.”

The new stuff includes the contemplative title track, “I Hold On” and “Bourbon in Kentucky” and the less-contemplative “Drunk on a Plane.” His fans sat quietly through the singing and erupted in cheers at each song’s end. After the performance, Bentley chatted and signed autographs.

“We all love what we do, and we know we would not be out here if y’all did not care about us as much as you do,” Bentley said.

On Saturday night at LP Field, surprise guest Lenny Kravitz walks out and launches into his hit “Fly Away.” It’s Kravitz’s second high-profile appearance during CMA Music Festival week -- he also appeared on the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday performing his cover of “American Woman” with the show’s co-host Jason Aldean.

A guitar heavy “Always on the Run” is next.

“Thank you very much,” Kravitz tells the audience. “I’m sure you weren’t expecting me to play right here. Thank you for the warm welcome to the beautiful city of Nashville.”

He tells fans about his “wonderful opportunity” to appear on the CMT Awards with Aldean and then says: “In case you missed it, Jason Aldean.”

Aldean walks out and audience applause trumps that to “Cruise,” making it the loudest response of the festival.

The men reprise their “American Woman” duet as camera flashes illuminate the stadium. A quick glance around the stadium reveals hundreds if not thousands of fans with their cell phones out recording the performance. Aldean stuck around for “Are You Gonna Go My Way” before heading backstage.

“I know I’m new here, but I’d like to do one more thing before I go,” Kravitz says. “I’d like to ask, as new friends, if we could do this together ... I would ask that we could all sing that chorus together.”

He plays “Let Love Rule” spotlighting his horn section, including a trombone and saxophone. The song soon turns into a jam that showcases every member of his band.

Unfortunately for Kravitz, it seems the country fans don’t know the words to his chorus. With some heavy coaching from the rocker, who has made his way to the small stage in the middle of the floor seats, fans start to pick the lyrics up.

He gets fans waving their arms back and forth, but they make him work for it. However, country fans amply award Kravitz with applause at the end of his set.

Next question: Does Lenny Kravitz want to be the next rocker to try and cross over?

Even by 9 a.m. this morning as some festival-goers still clutched cups of morning coffee, the Blue Bell Ice Cream workers had stacked up pyramids of their mini ice cream cartons, free for the taking.

Justin Biggs of Mt. Juliet, who works for the Texas-based company, said they'll give away ice cream until about 5 p.m. today as they have every day during the festival from their refrigerated truck on Broadway at Third Avenue. He said they won't know how many cartons they've given away until the festival ends, but it's sure to be a lot.

"It's pretty steady all day long," he said.

Though Blue Bell can be found throughout the state of Tennessee, that's not the case for many other areas.

"It's good advertising and a good way to get the product out there," Biggs said of the company's presence at CMA Music Festival. "We're building as quick as we can."

Dierks Bentley visited with reporters before his set at LP Field tonight for the CMA Music Festival and reflected on how times have changed since his time as an intern with the Country Music Association when he moved to town.

“Jo Dee Messina was in the back of my golf cart,” he said.

He acknowledged the mutual respect, love and trust between performers and fans. “It’s like nothing else in this world,” he said.

Behind the scenes with CMA Music Festival caterers for artists and crew at LP Field: http://tnne.ws/10Zui7H

Around 2 p.m. at LP Field on Saturday, a temporary restaurant kitchen, set up under white tents, buzzed with energy near the end zone.

Spears of asparagus rolled by on a cart as a cook whirled soup with an immersion blender. Another chef seasoned a tray of shrimp to be wheeled off and cooked for dinner service later with New York strip that sizzled over a grill.

The “restaurant,” operated by Ned’s Catering of Oklahoma City, serves the hundreds of artists and crew who set up lights, sound, stages and whiz through the backstage halls on golf carts making sure the shows go off without a hitch. And the restaurant has been running for 18 days -- breakfast, lunch and dinner every day -- with about six more days to go even after the shows end on Sunday night.

“We’ll cook for 24 days,” said Ned Shadid, the owner of Ned’s Catering. “We started with about 60 (people to cook for) and gradually built up.”

Yesterday, for example, they served 1,160 -- 609 at dinner alone including VIPs such as Sheryl Crow.

“You usually cook all day,” Shadid said.

Indeed, he rolls out of the tour bus parked just a few yards from the kitchen at 5 a.m. Breakfast must be ready from 7 to 10:30 a.m. Lunch runs from noon to 4 p.m. and dinner begins at 5 p.m. Meals might include options such as New York strip and pan-seared shrimp with heirloom tomato butter sauce, grilled asparagus and buttered linguine with homemade dinner rolls and desserts.

The coffee with special powers at behind-the-scenes catering at LP Field. (photo: Jennifer Justus)

Shadid and operations manager James Winters have toured with U2, Eric Clapton, Kelly Clarkson, Z.Z. Top and Jason Aldean, among others. But logging hours and time on the road, they become more than the chefs. Winters has even babysat Aldean’s kids.